


Friendly Fire

by RKG



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-16 17:20:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29335929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RKG/pseuds/RKG
Summary: When Varian comes to visit Cassandra on her journey, things go horribly wrong...
Relationships: Cassandra/Varian (Disney: Tangled)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	Friendly Fire

Cass was no stranger to sleeping in the elements, it was part of her soldier training, and when there had been no inns for miles, the royal caravan had made it a regular thing (honestly, she preferred sleeping in the elements to sleeping in the same caravan as Rapunzel and that blasted Rider.) however sometimes she kind of wished for the safety of an inn, and tonight was one of those nights. She couldn't help it, ever since she had left Corona after Rapunzel's wedding she had felt like she was being watched. She had heard whispers that some late to the game bounty hunters were going to try and bring "the moon witch" down, but considering she had been acquitted of her crimes back in Corona she wondered who on earth they'd be bringing her back _to_. She was pretty sure that the Kingdom of Corona would have laughed at their efforts, but maybe they meant an entirely different way of bringing the moon witch down, maybe they didn't want to bring her back _alive_.

She couldn't allow her poor Father to be shamed all over again when bounty hunters brought him his daughter's head on a pike, so she kept vigilant, and hid out in areas that she knew were almost too inhospitable for humans. Fidella didn't mind, but after awhile she could tell that she would have preferred a warm stable to the cold air. "Sorry, girl." she muttered as she hitched her to a sapling beside the big tree she was sleeping in that night. Cass made herself what could only be described as a hammock high in the branches, she had plans to sleep like a jungle cat tonight. Normally she would have found a cave, but it was cold, and sometimes bears and other large animals had the same idea that she did. She would rather avoid getting eaten by a bear.

Speaking of eating, her dinner consisted of bread and cheese that night. It wasn't too bad of a meal, but she would have preferred her own lamb stew. She wasn't the best cook, but lamb stew was one of those things that she could make to perfection, or so that's what her Dad said. After she had made it for him when she was a lot younger he had demanded that she make it for him ever since, it was one of those winter traditions that she kind of missed, but... it's not like she could just go home for the winter, besides, she doubted she belonged anywhere in Corona now. Sure, Rapunzel had welcomed her back at the wedding but that was just for the wedding, that was supposed to be a happy occasion anyway, it's not like Rapunzel was suddenly going to break tradition and spoil her own wedding by being rotten to her.

Cass sighed and made do with her meal, then rolled over to go to sleep. 

But she couldn't.

Every now and again, she would hear it. Walking. The soft lumber of hooves, and it wasn't Fidella settling in for the night, it was other hoofbeats, on the road. They were walking but they were walking rather slowly, almost like their rider was having trouble making the animal go at all. Ever since her time with Zhan Tiri, some animals still shied away from her. Fidella didn't, but Fidella knew her, however in certain villages she had met horses who had gotten skittish around her, and smaller animals who didn't trust her. Owl was one of the only smaller animals that did, one of the only ones that did in fact. She lamented that fact, because up until her encounter with Zhan Tiri, she had really liked the fact that animals trusted her. 

The infrequent hoofbeats came closer.

Cass thanked whomever might have been listening that she wasn't on the ground and was in a tree. Even though she technically had no light, at least whomever was tracking her had the same disadvantage that she did. Normally, she would have light up a lantern but she couldn't. It would attract whatever Bounty Hunters' attention and then she would have to fight. Instead, she silently readied her crossbow, ready for the attack, much like a jungle cat. As the hoofbeats grew closer, Fidella started to snort and her eyes went wide with fear. Fidella was usually a pretty good judge of character so Cass kept her finger on the trigger, waiting... 

~*~*~*~

Varian made his way through the forest, sure it wasn't where he would _like_ to be sleeping but there was no inns around for miles and he could rough it for just one night. Besides, he could try out one of his newest inventions and that was the automatic pillow. It was a self-inflating, giant hankerchief that turned into a pillow. Perfect for travelers! Of course, he really hadn't gotten anyone to be a test subject yet so he decided that this trip was as good an opportunity as ever. He decided to go a bit deeper into the woods so he wouldn't be right next to the road, after all, sleeping next to the road would be a surefire way to attract bandits and he didn't really like the thought of being robbed in the middle of the night. 

Not that he couldn't have defended himself, he had dozens of self-defense inventions on him that could definitely have served their purpose, but when one is asleep one often doesn't think in the moment. He didn't want to be caught unawares. Up ahead, he could see a clearing of trees just underneath the moonlight and headed for them. It was just off the road enough so that no one on the road could see him, but he could see them and hear them approaching. Suddenly, his horse, Hindenburg got skittish and began to back up.

"Come on, Hindenburg." he urged softly.

Hindenburg was a stubborn old plow nag that his Dad had entrusted him with for the trip. While a good, trustworthy plow horse, sometimes Hindenburg had a tendency to start at the stupidest things when it came to riding. When they had reached Vardaros, Hindenburg had decided to flip out over a butterfly that crossed their path and had reared up, sliding Varian into a mud puddle. Fortunately he had packed enough detergent spheres in order to be able to clean his clothes. He didn't want to be covered in mud when he met Cassandra.

He couldn't help but sigh at the thought. 

He hadn't seen Cass since Rapunzel's wedding, when she had chosen to hang out with him for the day rather than go to the royal event. They had actually had a good time together at the farm, he had made several little gifts for her that he had wanted to send, but they were too big for owl to carry back and forth, so when she had said that she would be near Corona's borders again in one of her letters, he had decided what better way to give her these gifts than to show up and surprise her? If he had timed things right, then he was pretty sure that she should have been just right outside of Vardaros, unfortunately it was dark now and he couldn't actually check any of the inns in Vardaros so he would have to bed down in the woods for the night.

" _Just as well_." he thought. Besides, it had been hours and he had been fighting Hindenburg the entire way there. Maybe a few hours rest would soften the old nag, but he somehow doubted it. He sort of wished that his Dad would have let him take one of the other horses, but he had said that Hindenburg was the only one he could spare. He was kind of glad that he had to pull off the road for the night because he was kind of leery about riding into a town like Vardaros at night anyway, he had heard tales of travelers going in but not coming out, but they had done stupid things like flashing cash around or advertising that they were royalty - yes, he'd heard all about when Rapunzel went to Vardaros thanks to a few conversations with Eugene and Lance.

He thought he heard a faint rustle of something up ahead, but couldn't be sure if that was just an animal, or if he were being ambushed. Certainly this part of the woods wasn't occupied, was it?

The thought had scarcely left his brain when suddenly a sharp, burning, excruciating pain hit his arm. " _AUGH_!!!"

~*~*~*~

When Cassandra fired, she didn't expect to actually _hit_ something, much less _someone_. 

Quickly, she climbed down from the tree and grabbed her lantern, hands shaking she struggled to light it to see just what kind of damage she'd done. If it were someone coming to rob her, then she'd just finish them off, but if it were just someone passing through then she would have a lot of explaining to do. Maybe she should put the crossbow down and pretend it came from somewhere else... oh who was she kidding? No one except her had that kind of marksmenship for miles around! Forgetting herself she ran in the direction of the scream, even though part of her just wanted to run away and pretend it never happened. 

"Owww.... God..." cried a voice... a familiar voice, a voice that she was pretty sure should be back in Old Corona.

"Varian...?"

She lifted her lantern just in time to see his scowl of betrayal.

"You shot me!" he cried.

"You snuck up on me!"

"You could've said 'Who's there'!!!" 

"I couldn't see! I didn't mean to hit you!"

"Tell that to my shoulder...NNGH!!"

Cass kind of wished for the influence of the Moonstone at the moment, it had muted all feeling when it came to harming people. It had made it to where she could block out all feelings of empathy and guilt and just use whatever fear and rage she had to focus on the job at hand and get things done instead of wasting time thinking about the people she hurt and the hearts that she broke. Right now was when she needed something like that, because she hadn't actually meant to hurt Varian... at least not that time. There had been other times, previous times, when she hadn't actually cared, but right now.. she did. 

So she relied on the next best thing, her military training. 

Quickly, she took some cloth, the last she had bought in Corona when she had last visited, and began ripping it into bandage-sized pieces. Varian was thankful he couldn't see at the moment because he could feel the blood dripping down his arm and what's worse is that he could smell it. The smell made him ever so slightly nauseous and it made him want to pass out. He began to waver in the saddle a bit.

"DON'T!" she cried.

"How?!" he cried, trying not to gag. 

"Think of something else! Anything!"

The first thing Varian thought of was Ruddiger, eating pumpkins out of the field back home. He and his Dad returning home after a supply trip to find the little raccoon foundered on pumpkin seeds one day. It was a nice memory, he smiled in spite of the pain. Cassandra took the moment when he was distracted to try and push the arrow through. "AUUUGH!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" "The only way for an arrow to go is straight through! If I pull it out you'll bleed to death!" A combination of imagining all that blood and the immense pain was too much for him, Varian passed out.


End file.
